Backward recall and benchmark effects of working memory

Working memory was designed to explain four benchmark memory effects: the word length effect, the irrelevant speech effect, the acoustic confusion effect, and the concurrent articulation effect. However, almost all research thus far has used tests that emphasize forward recall. In four experiments, we examine whether each effect is observable when the items are recalled in reverse order. Subjects did not know which recall direction would be required until the time of test, ensuring that encoding processes would be identical for both recall directions. Contrary to predictions of both the primacy model and the feature model, the benchmark memory effect was either absent or greatly attenuated with backward recall, despite being present with forward recall. Direction of recall had no effect on the more difficult conditions (e.g., long words, similar-sounding items, items presented with irrelevant speech, and items studied with concurrent articulation). Several factors not considered by the primacy and feature models are noted, and a possible explanation within the framework of the SIMPLE model is briefly presented

Age -related differences in the von Restorff isolation effect

Older adults demonstrate poorer memory than younger adults on a variety of episodic memory tasks. In spite of this difference in overall level of performance, most manipulations of stimulus characteristics, encoding manipulations, and testing methods affect younger and older adults in similar manners. The limited data on the role of distinctiveness in memory, however, suggest that aging may be associated with a reduction in the benefit afforded by distinctiveness. In younger adults, memory for a unique item embedded in an otherwise homogeneous list is better than that for a control item, known as the von Restorff or isolation effect (von Restorff, 1933). Although this effect has been observed for younger adults, there seems to be no benefit for the isolated item for older adults (Cimbalo & Brink, 1982). One explanation for this difference invokes Naveh-Benjamin\u27s (2000) associative deficit hypothesis which attributes age-related differences in memory to a reduced ability of older adults to associate information in memory. According to this view, older adults will show memory deficits whenever they are required to form novel associations amongst units of information, such as associations between items or associations between items and contextual elements. Experiment 1 tested younger and older adults using immediate free recall of lists of twelve unrelated nouns. Isolate lists contained one item presented in red font amongst 11 black items, and the control lists contained all black items. In Experiment 1, an isolation effect was obtained for both younger and older adults. Slower presentation rates did not eliminate age-related differences in the size of the effect. In Experiments 2 and 3, lists of categorized nouns were presented, with one semantically unrelated noun in the isolate lists. Both experiments failed to find an isolation effect for older adults when a semantic manipulation was used, despite equivalent levels of overall performance for younger and older adults (Experiment 2). These findings disconfirmed a prediction of the associative deficit hypothesis. Thus, the data on aging and the effects of isolation yield mixed support for the associative deficit hypothesis and suggest that older adults may sometimes view the isolate as a distraction

Backward recall and the word length effect

The word length effect, the finding that words that have fewer syllables are recalled better than otherwise comparable words that have more syllables, is one of the benchmark effects that must be accounted for in any model of serial recall, and simulation models of immediate memory rely heavily on the finding. However, previous research has shown that the effect disappears when participants are asked to recall the items in strict backward order. The present 2 experiments replicate and extend that finding by manipulating the participant’s foreknowledge of recall direction (Experiment 1) and by giving the participant repeated practice with one direction by blocking recall direction (Experiment 2). In both experiments, a word length effect obtained with forward but not backward recall. The results are problematic for all models that currently have an a priori explanation for word length effects. The finding can be accounted for but is not predicted by Scale-Independent Memory, Perception, and Learning (SIMPLE), a model in which item and order information are differentially attended to in the 2 recall directions

Valence and concreteness in item recognition: Evidence against the affective embodiment account

The Affective Embodiment Account posits that sensorimotor interactions play an important role in learning and processing concrete words whereas experiences from emotional states play an important role in learning and processing abstract words. Because of this, there should be greater enhancement of valence for abstract than for concrete words and therefore there should be an interaction between valence and concreteness. Although this prediction has been observed in a number of tasks, very few studies have looked specifically at memory. Three experiments are reported that assess whether valence interacts with concreteness in recognition. In Experiment 1, recognition of concrete words was better than abstract, but there was no difference as a function of whether the words were positive or negative and there was no interaction. Experiment 2 compared positive and neutral words and Experiment 3 compared negative and neutral words; in both, there was a concreteness effect but no effect of valence and no interaction. These results replicate previous findings that when positive and negative words are equated more fully, valence has no effect on recognition, and also suggest a limit on the scope of the Affective Embodiment Account

Directly Assessing the Relationship Between Irrelevant Speech and Irrelevant Tapping

The acoustic confusion effect is the finding that lists of to-be-remembered items that sound similar to one another are recalled worse than otherwise comparable lists of items that sound different. Previous work has shown that concurrent irrelevant speech and concurrent irrelevant tapping both reduce the size of this effect, suggesting similarities between the two manipulations. The authors assessed the relation between irrelevant speech and irrelevant tapping by correlating the disruption each causes to recall of similar-and dissimilar-sounding items. A significant correlation was obtained, indicating a relation between the two. The results indicate that researchers should be sensitive to changes in the magnitude of the effects rather than focusing exclusively on the presence or absence of particular effects. Implications for the 3 major explanations of the irrelevant speech effect are discussed

The list-length effect occurs in cued recall with the retroactive design but not the proactive design.

An ongoing debate in the memory literature concerns whether the list-length effect (better memory for short lists compared with long lists) exists in item recognition (Annis, Lenes, Westfall, Criss, & Malmberg, 2015; Dennis, Lee, & Kinnell, 2008). This debate was initiated when Dennis and Humphreys (2001) showed that, when confounds present in earlier list-length experiments were controlled, the list-length effect disappeared. The issue has yet to be settled. Interestingly, the same confounds present in recognition experiments exist in cued-recall experiments. Here, we implemented Dennis and Humphreys’ (2001) methodological controls to test for the list-length effect in cued recall. In Experiment 1, we found a robust list-length effect when start-of-study items from the long list were tested. However, no list-length effect was found in Experiments 2 and 3 when end-of-study items from the long list were tested. These results are consistent with the view that cued recall is susceptible to retroactive interference but not proactive interference, a position supported by early interference work (e.g., Lindauer, 1968; Melton & von Lackum, 1941)

Testing a strategy-disruption account of the list-strength effect: are sampling bias and output interference responsible?

Presenting items multiple times on a study list increases their memorability, a process known as item strengthening. The list-strength effect (LSE) refers to the finding that, compared to unstrengthened (pure) lists, lists for which a subset of the items have been strengthened produce enhanced memory for the strengthened items and depressed memory for the unstrengthened items. Although the LSE is found in free recall (Tulving & Hastie, 1972), it does not occur in recognition (Ratcliff et al., 1990). In free recall, the LSE in mixed lists is attributed to a sampling bias promoting priority recall of strong items and consequent output interference affecting weak items. We suggest that, in recognition, the disruption of this pattern through the randomization of test probes is responsible for the null LSE. We present several pilot experiments consistent with this account; however, the registered experiment, which had more statistical power, did not support this account